Why Slashing Marketing Budgets Is a Fatal Mistake

**Tim Elliott** (0:00)
It's the Morning Drive, lots of businesses feeling the pressure in today's economy. So can the right marketing campaign make the difference between survival and closure? Today, we're talking about the power of smart marketing, including the Camel Soap Factory's Save a Soap campaign, which has helped rally community support for the UAE brand as it works towards securing its future. It's something of a, I think it's a bit of a master class in narrative-driven marketing. Lucy Bradley is the founder of Plug. She's kind of behind the campaign, and she's with me. Good morning.

**Lucy Bradley** (0:37)
Good morning.

**Tim Elliott** (0:38)
It's nice to see you. You know, Lucy, we spoke to Stevie Lomass. I think it was the beginning of this month, second or third of June. She was in the studio with us. She's the founder, she's the CEO of the Camel Soap Factory. She was very open about how tough things have been for her, how it's been for the business. She was very open about the hard reality. And it's the campaign that you helped create for her.
I just want to reiterate this. It's kind of a Save the Business campaign.
25,000 bars of soap. You've got to what? Just over 12,000?

**Lucy Bradley** (1:14)
Just over 12,000 this week. In a month? Yeah, in the space of a month.

**Tim Elliott** (1:19)
Okay. That's going pretty well.

**Lucy Bradley** (1:21)
Yeah. Yeah, really well.

**Tim Elliott** (1:23)
Pleased?

**Lucy Bradley** (1:25)
Yeah. I mean, we're almost halfway there, so this was a three-month goal.

**Tim Elliott** (1:29)
Yeah.

**Lucy Bradley** (1:29)
And I've worked with them on and off for years. So I've known them for years. And then just before war kicked off, they said, oh, we'd really like some help with marketing again.

**Tim Elliott** (1:40)
Yeah.

**Lucy Bradley** (1:41)
And of course, they had no idea what was ahead, what was going to happen. And so obviously the war kicked off, I was doing some work with them just to reconnect with customers. And then the reality is, I'm sure she won't mind me saying, she said, well, we can't afford to pay you anymore. So we need to give you notice. And I said, well, I thought to myself, well, if I'm going, let's do a really big campaign, last ditch attempt to make it work. And I said, how about Save a Soap? And usually, when I work with clients, I usually just come up with the idea, I don't really consult with them. I just come up with it, present it. It's easier to present a visual and say, look, this is what it's going to look like and say. And I voice noted it to the brand manager on my way home and said, I think we've got to go all out and be honest with people and say, look, we might not survive. This is the reality. Let's not sugarcoat it, because you know how everyone loves to live in Dubai.
Life of luxury. It's always easier to look good than be good. So I wrote it, designed it with my team, presented it. I said, right now, we've got to run with it. And she said, okay, let's do it.
And that was it.

**Tim Elliott** (2:53)
Where does it come from with you, though? Because, I mean, look, I'm, when it comes to marketing, I'm terrible.
I have great respect for really good marketing people, because it's so creative, I think. But where does it come from that you just say, right, I, most of us don't just dump in and say, I think we should do this. For most of us, it's going to sit down, you have to consult, and then you get a consensus, then you're like, let's step forward this way. But you didn't do that. You just went, right, let's do this.

**Lucy Bradley** (3:20)
Yeah. Well, me personally.

**Tim Elliott** (3:22)
Yeah, is that just something?

**Lucy Bradley** (3:23)
Oh, I mean, look, I call myself brand commander. I mean, so, I mean, there's obviously a reason. I mean, I'm quite domineering according to both of my ex-husbands.
But I find you have to with people. And also, there is, I know this is going to upset people, but there is a lack of creativity out here. And someone has to take ownership, and often it isn't the business owners.
And often the best things come from someone looking in the business going, right, you need to get everyone to buy a bar of soap. What's the easy criteria? Go online, spend 35 dirhams, buy a bar of soap, done. And then again, it's just making it super clear and consistent, that message. So I just find we all understand that, but to make a campaign work as successful as this one, it's a bit like what shampoo bottles say, rinse and repeat. So you keep telling it, buy, support the campaign, buy a bar of soap, support the campaign. This is where we are. We need your help. This is where you can find it again and again and again and again. And that's kind of what I did. So have it all ready for every week.